Data cards have many forms and uses. Some of these uses include identification, medical record storage, banking transactions, security access, purchasing and others. It is recognized that these cards need to be protected while being carried in one's wallet or purse. Contaminants such as dust and dirt on the surface of a card, as well as scratches and other deformities, can cause errors in reading the card. Optically written and read cards have a particular problem with dust and dirt. Two primary optical card applications for which this is a significant problem are personal medical cards and identification/security access cards.
Optically-written personal medical cards have an optical recording area for optically-recorded information such as medical history charts or digitized test data. Some personal medical cards will also have an area for eye-readable information which is used often during routine medical situations. This information is generally for identification purposes. There might also be limited machine-readable data stored on magnetic strips or bar code symbols. Since the optical recording area will be exposed to environmental hazards every time the medical card is handled, there is significant risk of the optical area becoming dirty.
The same problem of contamination exists with data cards used in identification/security access applications, as was described for medical cards. Optically-recorded identification cards generally have an optical recording area and an eye-readable information area, often including a photograph. In many cases, the eye-readable information is intended to be visible for long periods of time, as with identification badges in work-places. Often these badges will have low-level security access codes stored on magnetics strips, for use in access control devices. The optically-recorded information is generally intended to be used in high level access applications or as a personal data history. Frequent exposure of the card or badge to the environment increases the likelihood of contamination of the recording surfaces.
It is an object of the present invention to devise a protective holder for optically-written data cards, that limits the exposure to the environment of the optical recording area, but still allows for convenient use of any eye-readable or limited machine-readable information associated with the optically-written cards.